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Steve Strogatz, Radiolab’s favorite mathematician, not only loves math but he thinks about love in terms of math. We recommend that you check out his most amusing New York Times essay.

In all cases, the business of theoretical physics boils down to finding the right differential equations and solving them.

photo credit Flickr/Mylla

Isabella Rosellini strikes again. We’ve mentioned this series before, but now it’s back with the next installment of bizarre and beautiful videos.

The “Why Vagina” video touches on something we’ve also explored on Radiolab.

On a personal note, I grew up with ducks as pets. As anyone who has had a ringside view of duck mating can probably tell you, the activities that I observed in our yard between the ducks were terrifying and violent. As an adult, learning about the ways in which female ducks control reproduction allows me to revisit those traumatic fowl memories in a new light.

Season 2 of Green Porno focuses on sex in the underwater world, where gender is a much more complicated and fluid concept then us landlubbers usually imagine. We can only hope that Rosselini will move on to even stranger territory in a future season. Like slime molds, which can have 13 genders.

Bot fly revealed, courtesy of Matt Buchanan

If you’ve been parasitized, literally or figuratively, we’d love to hear about it. And don’t spare us any of the vomitous details. We can handle it.

Email us at radiolab@wnyc.org

Yet another listener has sent in a youtube that makes us stop what we’re doing and gather around ye olde computer screen to gaze upon its offerings. Darn you, Ross Bennett, for indulging our desire to procrastinate! You want to us to finish Season 5, don’t you? Alas. This one’s too good not to pass along. Behold, the transcendent power of lullabies:

Here’s what listener Ross Bennet thought about the video:

It’s a short video of a man singing a song to a litter of very active but attentive boxer puppies. The instant he begins singing, the entire litter of puppies begins shuffling around for a place to sleep like some narcoleptic version of musical chairs. By the time he’s been through two refrains of “Goodnight, Sweetheart” the pups are out cold. It’s definitely worth the 1:40 to watch it.

Now watch closely. This is more than just providing a soothing sound that creates a comforting environment conducive to relaxation. There’s something triggering sleep. These puppies zonk out as quickly as a trained dog will “sit” or “shake.”

As I’m watching this, recalling your episodes on sleep and musical language, so many questions come to mind.

What is a lullaby?
What is this connection between music and sleep?
Is this an inborn trait that we reinforce to become a conditioned behavior? Or is there something else going on here?
What makes a good lullaby?
Who was the brilliant person who hit on the idea of a bedside clock radio with a sleep timer?
Have there been any clinical studies about using music to treat insomnia?
And what exactly is insomnia? Could it be a lack of music?
What does a lullaby look or feel like to a synaesthesia patient? Do they look or feel different than other music?

Hey folks, we’re considering putting out a Best of Radio Lab CD in the fall and we’re looking for a few suggestions for what to include. Imagine if you could only play one story — not a whole show, but something a little smaller — which one would it be?

A few staff favorites:

- The Goat on the Cow from “Detective Stories”

- Sometimes Behaves So Strangely from “Musical Language”

-The Upholstery Mystery from “Stress”

What are your favorite stories? Comment here or email them to radiolab@wnyc.org and your pick may end up on our CD in the fall!

NOTE: This CD should come out just before our new season of one-hour shows is released. (I know, I know, you are waiting! Well, we’re working on it!) All I can say about that is we’re working hard on some very interesting new topics : race, decision-making, diagnosis…

We’ve gotten a lot of great responses to our show Laughter. Tom was so inspired that he changed his voicemail:

“I was so excited that when I got to work I changed the end of my daily telephone greeting to “…make it a groovy day.” For some reason I then decided to start laughing like the laugh track people on your show.

When I finished I turned to look at my cube mates who were grinning from ear-to-ear. They didn’t know what was going on of course but my laughing sure “charged” their morning. Less than a minute later I started getting phone calls from others in the office who wanted to listen to my greeting. (My cubies must have told). I got 15 calls within 10 minutes and then things got back to normal. All day as I passed people in the hall I’d get “…hello Tom.” and then a big smile would come across their face.”

Listen to his giggle-fit here:

Though it’s practically a truism by now that anthropologists’ reports often say more about the writers’ assumptions than about the cultures in question, the valiant attempt by Mahadev L. Apte to compile an anthropology of laughter is laudable, if often hard to believe.

Here are a few highlights from his book Humor and Laughter: An Anthropological Approach:

The Dobuans of New Guinea revile laughter and have made a virtue of dourness.
Pygmies are very quick to roll on the ground, slap their sides, and snap their fingers in uproarious laughter.
The Greenland Inuit resolve disputes with public-humiliation contests, and the winner is chosen by how much laughter he summons to his cause.
Lower-caste Tamil men giggle when addressing someone from the upper caste in order to express humility.
The 40 million speakers of Marathi, in Western India, have a robust lexicon for laughter, including:

Khudukhudu: soft pleasant laughter of infant
Khadakhada: loud laughter of an infant
Phidiphid: vulgar and obscene laughter.
Khaskhas: mild appreciative laughter
Khokho: loud uproarious laughter
Khikhi: horselike laughter
Phisphis: derogatory laughter
Hyahya: superficial polite laughter

Of course, English has a respectable list as well, including giggle, chortle, chuckle, cackle, guffaw, snigger, snicker, snort, titter, crow, yuck, and the regrettably obsolete cachinnate. Perhaps this is what a cachinnation sounds like—you’ll want to fast forward through the first two minutes.

Apte also notes a few universals:

“…humor in traditional societies grossly appears similar to our own. Examples involved such varied situations as laughter at the antics of children, lewd comments, sexual jokes, teasing, mocking others who were too serious or in positions of authority, spousal jibes, slapstick maneuvers, uncomfortable laughter to save face, and humor to quell conflicts within a tribe.”

THIS EVENT IS FULL!! WE ARE NO LONGER ACCEPTING RESERVATIONS

The World Science Festival and WNYC Radio present You and Your Irrational Brain, a live, outdoor event (rain or shine) Thursday, May 29th at Water Taxi Beach in Long Island City, Queens, NY.

Have you ever wondered why you might think it’s okay to steal a pen from work, but not money from the petty cash box? Ever splurged on a lavish meal, only later to clip a 25 cent coupon for a can of soup? Ever taken something FREE, knowing full well that you didn’t really want it? Why do we make these decisions that are so clearly irrational?

Behavioral economist Dan Ariely, author of Predictably Irrational, along with science writer and Radio Lab contributor Jonah Lehrer, will join Radio Lab hosts Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich to explore the often surprising factors that motivate and dictate human behavior.

The FREE event will combine discussion with live group experiments, games and demonstrations that test the ideas in Ariely’s book, followed by food, drink and music under the stars and on the sand.

WHEN
Thursday, May 29th, 2008 from 7 pm to 8:30 pm, followed by music, DJ, beer and beach-side merriment

WHERE
Water Taxi Beach (Google Map)
2nd Street and Borden Avenue
Long Island City, NY 11101

For the full experience, take the 5-min water taxi to the beach. There’s a shuttle ($5) leaving at 5:45pm, and it’s departing from the pier at East 35th Street. THIS IS A SPECIAL ONE-TIME SHUTTLE set up for tonight’s event!

The Beach is also within walking distance of the Vernon/Jackson station on the 7 train.

Water Taxi Beach has concession stands for snacks and beer, so no outside food, but feel free to bring your beach towel, chaise lounge, volleyball, sand pail etc. And bring vaild ID (21 +). Minors are only allowed to come with their parents.

THIS EVENT IS FULL - WE ARE NO LONGER TAKING RESERVATIONS

Flickr/ digitalART

Earlier this week, an article in the New York Times reported some good news about the genetic diversity of captive tigers. Apparently, a new study found that up to 20% of captive tigers are purebred, with genetic variations that no longer exist in the wild.

The article also pointed out that only 3,000 tigers now exist in the wild (that’s down from 100,000 in about 100 years). And of the tigers in captivity, only about 1,000 are part of breeding programs aimed at saving their respective species.

Three such tigers in South Africa made the headlines last month. A South China tiger–one of the most threatened tiger breeds–named Cathay gave birth to two cubs. The cubs, along with another born in November, are all the offspring of a South China tiger named Tiger Woods. They’re the first cubs of their kind to be born in captivity, and therefore raise hopes of saving their species–which The International Union for Conservation of Nature already declared extinct in 2002. The cubs are part of program in South Africa that aims to breed tigers, and eventually “re-wild” them after creating reserves in China.

For more information, check out this article at Times Online.

Gearheads, take note! The Bent Festival is in NYC all weekend long!
It’s a three day-long exploration of hardware hacking, DIY electronics, and circuit bending. Artists from around the globe perform music with their homemade or circuit bent instruments each night of the festival, teach workshops to adults and children alike, and create amazing, interactive art installations. The festival brings together artists of all ages and showcases the state of the art of DIY electronics and circuit bending culture.

Dates:
April 24-26

Location:
DCTV
87 Lafayette St
New York, NY, 10013

Tickets:
Each concert is $10.
A Festival Pass to all events is available for $25.

If you can’t make it to New York, the Bent Festival is also coming to Minneapolis May 1st-3rd.

For more information go here.